U.  S.  SENATOR  FROM  MAINE, 


DELIVERS  ■  M 

ta/  ■  '•< 

4 

BLOOMINGTON,  ILLINOIS. 


WEDNESDAY,  OCTOBER  9TH,  1878. 


Presented  by  the 

McLean  County  Republican  Central  Committee. 
Bloomington,  Illinois. 

> 


PANTAGHAPH  PRINTING  ESTABLISHMENT, 
BLOOMINGTON,  ILL. 


[ From  the  Bloomingv.  >  Pantograph  of  10 th  inst.] 


Mr.  Chairman ,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  of  Illinois : 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  engaged  i& 
a  vast  and  serious  political  battle  on  the  question 
of  the  currency.  There  have  been  skirmishes  in 
the  past ;  there  have  been  some  preliminary 
struggles,  but  the  actual  fight  has  begun  in  1878, 
between  the  political  parties  in  this  country.  The 
question  is  to  determine  whether  the  people  of 
the  United  States  desire  hereafter  to  have  an 
honest  and  valuable  currency,  suitable  for  their 
own  market,  and  for  the  markets  of  the  world, 
or  whether  they  desire  to  have  a  political  currency, 
to  be  voted  up  or  down,  to  be  contracted  or  ex¬ 
panded,  according  to  the  polit  cal  machinery  of 
the  party  that  happens  for  the  time  being  to  have 
a  majority  in  Congress. 

Now,  what  I  maintain,  and  the  fact  that  I 
desire  to  impress  upon  you,  whiie  you  kindly  give 
me  your  attention,  is,  that  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  and  especially  that  portion  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  that  inhabit 

THE  GREAT  WESTERN  AGRICULTURAL  REGION, 

cannot  afford  to  deal  in  any  other  money,  than 
the  money  of  the  world.  We  do  not  want,  in  this 
country,  Republican  money ;  we  do  not  want, 
Democratic  money ;  we  want  the  constitutional 
money  for  the  people,  the  same  for  all  sections, 
for  all  classes,  for  the  rich  and  for  the  poor,  for 
the  high  and  for  the  low,  for  the  native  and  for 
the  adopted,  the  same  this  year  and  the  sam  *u-  xt 
year.  And  the  question  to  be  determined  by  H  i 
vote  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  is  wl  ’  •? 

they  will  run  on  that  kind  of  a  curre-.  ,  or 
plunge  into  that  sea  of 

irredeemable  nonsense 
called  “fiatXpaper”  which  promises  to  pa/ 
ing— at  no  time,  at  no  placej  to  nobody.  I  s  > ;  - 
mit  to  you,  fellow- citizens,  the  case  before  you 
to-day.  It  is  not  to  determine  whether  we  wiii  go 
forward  and  have  what  is  technically  called  re¬ 
sumption  of  specie  payments  in  this  country  ;  but 
the  question  is  whether  we  will  go  back  and 
abandon  specie  payments  because  practically  the 
United  States  are  on  a  specie  basis  to-day.  I 
see  many  men  here  with  gray  hairs  ;  I  see  men 
hero  whose  memory  of  affairs  covers  two-score 
at  least,  and  I  submit  to  them  whether  before 
the  war,  or  during  the  war,  or  at  any 
time  after  the  war,  in  their  ex¬ 

perience  as  business  men,  they  ever  knew, 
id  Illinois,  paper  currency  circulating  as  money 
among  the  people  to  be  as  near  absolute  equality 
with  the  coin  as  the  seven  hundred  millions  of 
paper  currency  that  circulates  in  the  United 
States  is  to-day.  Never.  The  difference  between 
the  coin  dollar  and  the  paper  dollar  is  reduced  to 

THE  MERE  FRACTION  OF  A  CENT,  s 

and  when  you  come  to  see  the  real  difference 
what  has  the  modern  Greenback  National  party 
got  for  its  for  its  foundation  corner  stone?  Just 
three-eighths  of  one  per  cent.  That  is  the  whole 
agitation,  and  the  men  who  are  for  honest  money 
have  ninety-nine  and  five-eighths  cents  in  their 
favor.  We  are  now  in  the  first  few  days  of 
October,  and  by  the  first  of  January  that 
mere  fraction  of  a  cent  will  disappear. 
I  appeal  to  those  who  have  known  it  longest,  and 
known  it  best,  for  the  truth  of  this  assertion  ;  and 
having,  as  1  say,  by  a  series  of  wise  measures 
based  upon  a  series  of  bit  er  experiences,  brought 
the  currency  of  this  country  until  it  is  at  practi¬ 
cal  equality  with  coin,  and  being  just  ready  To 
welcome  coin  into  circulation,— waiting  for  the 
SHOO, f  00,000  or  more  to  leap  into  the  channels  of 
circulation, — the  question  is  now  whether  we 
will  keep  the  paper  so  and  welcome  the  coin,  or 
whether  we  will  go  backward  and  expel  the  coin, 
and  go  once  more  on  to  the  sea  of  irredeemable 


promises  and  all  the  evils  attendant  upon  it.  I 
turn  the  issue  upon  the  gentlemen  who  talk  about 
resumption.  They  come  to  me  and  picture  the 
hardships  of  resumption.  Why,  the  hardships 
that  ar8  connected  with  it  have  been  gone 
through  with ; 

WE  HAVE  MADE  THE  SACRIFICES  J 

We  have  gone  clear  through  with  them ;  and  we 
have  gone  until  we  are  now  on  Pisgah  top,  look¬ 
ing  down  into  the  promised  land.  It  is  inviting, 
serene,  cheerful,  and  prosperous  ;  and  just  as  we 
are  going  to  enter  it  and  enioy  its  fruits,  up 
steps  the  active  Greenback  party  and  says, 
“Don’t  take  a  step  in  that  direction.  Come 
back  and  wander  with  us  forty  years  more  in 
the  financial  wilderness.”  [Laughter  and  cheers.] 
We  do  not  propose  to  do  it. 

Let  us  trace  historically  the  great  facts  that 
have  brought  us  to  where  we  row  stand  You 
can  all  in  this  vast  assemblage  (except  the  young 
ladies  who  are  present)  (Laughter]  remember  the 
outbreak  of  the  War.  When  the  war  broke  upon 
this  country  seventeen  years  ago  last  spring  the 
country  was  in  bad  condition  to  meet  it,  and  the 
first  thing  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  after  calling  for 
the  75,000  men  from  the  States,  was  to  assemble 
Congress,  which  met  on  the  4th  of  July,  1861,  for 
the  purpose  of  providing  men  and  means  to 
prosecute  the  war  for  the  suppression  of  the  re- 
hellion. Fortunately  the  men  provided  themselves. 
All  that  was  left  for  Congress  to  do  was 

TO  PROVIDE  THE  MEANS. 

#250,000,000  was  authorized ;  on  the  faith  and 
credit  of  the  United  States,  and  for  ready  cash 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury  was  authorized 
to  issue  #50,000,000  of  demand  notes  to  circulate  as 
money,  and  they  were  issued.  During  the  autumn 
the  military  situation  was  not  encouraging,  we 
met  reverses  instead  of  victories,  and  afterward 
complications  arose  with  England,  growing  out  of 
the  arrest  of  Slidell  and  Mason.  With  these  trou¬ 
bles  at  home  and  abroad,  the  bankers  suspended 
specie  payment,  and  the  government  of  the  Uni¬ 
ted  States  followed  suit  the  next  day. 
And  when  Congress  met  they  found 
#3,000,000  had  gone  to  protest  in  a  single 
day,  at  the  sub-treasury  in  New  York. 
We  had  nothing  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States 

BUT  EMPTINES8, 

and  when  Mr.  Lincoln  called  Congress  to  assem¬ 
ble  on  the  4th  day  of  July,  1861,  he  called  it  to 
confront  a  great  rebellion,  and  it  found  a  Treas¬ 
ury  which  had  absolutely  been  left  without  any 
resources  whatever;  and  the  first  thing  he  did  was 
to  recommend  a  loan,  and  a  loan  of  #250,0  0,000 
of  United  States  demand  notes  was  authorized. 
These  notes  were  put  into  circulation.  You  re¬ 
member  them.  They  were  among  the  people, and 
in  the  course  r f  five  "months,  owing  to  the  unfor¬ 
tunate  military  situation  and  the  trouble  precipi 
tated  upon  this  country  by  a  threatened  rupture 
with  England,  the  result  was  that  the  notes  went 
to  protest,  and  when  the  Congress  met  after  the 
holidays  of  1861,  in  January,  1862,  they  met 
again  with  en  empty  Treasury.  They  were  com¬ 
pelled  then  to  resort  to  that  great  measure  which 
was  the  foundation  of  the  financial  success  of  the 
war,— the  measure  which  authorized  the  issue  of 
#150,000,000  of 

LEGAL-TENDER  PAPER. 

Before  the  year  was  out  another  #150,000,000 
was  cal  ed  for  and  voted,  and  before  the  year  was 
out  that  #150,000,000  was  gone  and  the  government 
treasury  again  empty. 

When  Congress  met  again  in  1863  the  military 
situation  had  improved,  but  the  financial  situa¬ 
tion  was  embarrassing.  The  military  situation 


was  Improved  because  Gettysburg  bad  been 
fought  and  won  In  the  East,  ami  Vicksburg  and 
Chattanooga  in  tbe  West,  and,  we  thought  we 
were  bringing  the  war  to  the  end,  and  when  Con¬ 
gress  met  in  December,  1863  they  met  with  this 
$300,000,000  of  money  in  circulation,  with  its 
great  depreciation  in  its  value.  They 

MET  AS  NO  OTHER  CONGRESS 

in  the  world  ever  met,  with  duties  devolving  upon 
them  of  such  magnitude  as  to  make  ojte  shudder 
to  look  back  upon  them.  They  met  With  an  im¬ 
pending  campaign,  whose  expenditures  were 
more  in  a  single  year  than  the  entire  European 
coalition  of  the  armies  to  put  down  Napoleon  I 
lilty  years  ago. 

When  they  met  they  had  a  listof  estimates  from 
the  secre'ary  of  the  treasury  for  the  expense  for 
the  next  year  amounting  to  $1,007,000,000? 

We  could  not  borrow  one  single  dollar  in  the 
mercantile  and  financial  world.  Well,  there  was 
a  very  extiaouinary  crisis;  there  were  forty  mil¬ 
lions  unpaid  that  were  issued,  lying  on  the  desk 
of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury.  The  army  bad 
thirty  millions  of  pay  due  to  it,  ’  the 
treasury  had  not  a  cent  in  it.  There¬ 
fore,  the  situation,  as  I  have  said,  was  crit¬ 
ical.  We  could  not  issue  paper  money  without 
destroying  our  ability  to  borrow,  and  yet  we  were 
compelled  that  day  and  then  to  have  some  ready 
cash  in  the  treasury,  and  the  result  was 
just  as  it  always  will  be  when  there  are  two 
conflicting  and  difficult  positions.  There 
was  a  compromise  ;  that  compromise  was  this: 

WE  APPEALED  TO  THE  WORLD 

to  loan  us  money,  all  the  world  stood  ready  to 
loan  us  money,  but  yet  all  the  financial  world  on 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  on  the  other  side, 
said,  “We  cannot  afford  to  loan  money  to  the 
Government  unless  we  are  sure  that  we  will  get 
money  back,  and  if  you  persist  in  destroying  your,  < 
currency  we  cannot  afford  to  invest  in  your  ' 
bonds/’  and  the  result  was  that  Congress,  consid¬ 
ering  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  understanding 
the  magnitude  of  the  crisis,  put  into  the  statutes 
of  the  United  States  this  great  compromise.  They 
said,  “Go  on,”  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
“borrow  all  the  money  you  can,  and  assure  all  the 
men  who  subscribe  to  the  government  loan  that 
we  have  made  this  declaration  ;  that,  while  we 
give  you  $100,000,000  additional  greenbacks  to  be 
used  at  once  in  paying  oft' the  army,  and  while  we 
give  you  $50,000,000  additional  greenbacks  for 
the  redemption  of  the  temporary  loan,  we  want  it 
to  be  put  upon  the  statutes  of  the  United  States  as 
follows : 

“Provided,  that  the  total  amount  of  United 
States  notes  (these  greenbacks)  i.-sued  and  to  be 
issued  shall  not  exceed  four  hundred  millions  of 
dollars.” 

Now  that  was  not  a  Republican  measure,  that 
was  not  a  measure  carried  as  a  party  measure. 
Every  Democratic  Senator,  aDd  every  Republican 
Senator,  every  Democratic  Representative  and 
every  Republican  Representative  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  voted  for  that  pledge,  and  on 
that  pledge  millions  and  thousands  of  millious  of 
dollars  was  borrowed,  on  that  pledge  was  obtained 
the  money  that  was  conveyed  to  the  armies  of 
Grant  in  the  East,  and  Sherman  in  the  West,  that 
closed  the  war  lor  the  Union. 
On  that  pledge  was  obtained  the 
money  which  crushed  the  rebellion;  on  that 
pledge  was  won  that  great  victory  which  enables 
us  to  meet  here  to-day  as  free  citizens  of  Illinois 
and  as  free  citizens  of  the  United  States  of  Amer¬ 
ica. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  say  if  it  were  a  great  hardship 
to  keep  that  pledge,  I  say  if  it  were  something 
that  we  haye  to  share,  is  the  e  a  man  in  the  land 
that  would  fail  to  make  the  sacrifice  ?  1  say  the 


people  of  the  United  States  have  no  more  right 

TO  VIOLATE  THAT  PLEDGE 

than  they  have  to  take  from  you  the  personal 
rights  guaranteed  to  you  in  the  Constituioin 
of  the  United  States.  Not  one  particle. 
But,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  not  wish  any  gentleman 
to  deduce  by  the  remotest  possible  implications, 
that  I  intend  to  convey  the  idea  that  if  we  were 
not  bound  by  that  pledge— nay,  if  that  pledge 
had  never  been  made— if  it  did  not  exist— I„do 
not  wish  any  gentleman  to  infer  that  I  mean  to 
convey  to  him  the  idea  that  by  any  possibility  it 
would  be  a  wise  and  judicious  step  on  the 
part  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
to-day  to  resolve  themselves  into  a  committee  of 
the  Whole  to-  begin  forthwith  to  issue  paper 
money.  I  do  not  think  under  anv  possible  cir¬ 
cumstances  it  can  be  a  wise  thing  for  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  United  States  to  take  into  its  hands 
the  issuing  of  paper  money.  Why?  If  you  will 
ask  me  one  question  I’ll  answer  you  with  another, 
as  I  am  a  Yankee,  and  have  the  right  both  to  ask 
questions  and  to  answer  questions  by  asking  addi¬ 
tional  ones.  I  have  asked  a  great  many  men, 
and  I  never  yet  have  got  an  an  answer  to  this 
question,  and  I  put  the  question  to  you.  to  take 
home  with  you  to-night,  to  sleep  on  it,  to  reflect 
on  it.  My  question  is  this':  If  you  propose  now 
to  have  the  government  issue  a  large  amount  of 
paper  money, 

HOW  DO  YOU  PROPOSE  TO  LIMIT, 

or  control,  or  regulate  the  amount  of  it  ?  How  do 
you  propose  to  regulate,  or  limit,  or  control  the 
amount  of  circulation?  and  its  value?  Where 
do  you  a  ply  the  brakes  ? 

You  come  back  to  the  one  answer,  “Why  you 
leave  it  to  Congress  ;”  that  is  the  way  the  able 
and  highly  esteemed  Senator  from  Ohio,  Thur¬ 
man  of  the  Democratic  party,  in  an  able  discus¬ 
sion  of  the  question  was  obliged  to  leave  it. 

I  read  his  speech  all  through.  I  thought  if  any 
man  was  able  to  tell  me,  or  tell  you,  how  that 
coula  be  regulated,  that  Senator  Thurman  was 
the  man,  and  I  read  him  with  great  "interest  for 
that  particular  point,  and  1  found  when  he  came 
to  that  portion  of  the  subject,  he  did  like  the  little 
boy  in  spelling  school  when  he  reached  a  hard 
word — ‘  ‘skipped.” 

HE  DIDN’T  TOUCH  IT, 

and  the  question  reverts  right  to  this  point  neces¬ 
sarily,  that  if  the  United  States  go  into  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  issuing  paper  money,  then  you  leave  it 
with  Congress,  when,  how  and  how  much  ?  I  have 
very  greatrespect  for  Congress.  I  do  not  pretend 
to  know  any  more  about  the  financial  question 
than  most  persons.  I  do  know  more  about  Con¬ 
gress  than  those  who  have  not  served.  I  have 
been  in  one  branch  sixteen  years,  and  I  have  a 
high  respect  for  Congress,  but  such  would  be  the 
necessary  results  of  such  conditions,  that  in  my 
judgment  to-night,  leave  it  to  the  County  Commis¬ 
sioners  of  McLean  county  to  determine  how  much 
currency  we  should  have  in  the  county,  and  you 
would  be  a  great  deal  safer  in  that  event,  tor  they 
would  not  be  looking  out  for  the  next  v  residency 
and  vice-presidency.  You  cannot  throw  that 
question  into  Congress  without  making  trouble 
withthe  finances  of  the  country. 

“Going  to  have  Congress  doit ;”  that  is, you  are 
not  to  know  how  much  the  circulating  medium  in 
this  country  is  until  Congress  meets.  You  are 
not  to  know  the  price  of  wheat,  or  corn,  or  beef, 
or  any  product,  until  Congress  tells  pou  what 
shall  be  the  bulk  of  the  circulating  medium. 
You  cannot  make  any  agreement  to  sell,  or  re¬ 
ceive,  or  accept  a  single  commodity  under  this 
system  of  finances  eight  months  ahead  until  the 
impending  session  of  Congress  arrives.  You  can¬ 
not  tell  any  more  than  you  could  tell  the  state  of 
the  weather  a  year  hence  what  would  be  the 


(4) 


price  of  pork,  and  beef,  and  corn,  eight  months 
thereafter. 

IT  WOULD  STOP  THE  WHEELS  OF  BUSINESS 
of  tbe  country  as  absolutely  as  if  you  were  smit¬ 
ten  with  a  pestilence  in  your  great  and  wealthy 
State  when  Congress  ifsued  Greenbacks  during 
the  war  they  bad  no  regard  for  the  laws  of  trade. 
They  had  regard  only  for  the  wanes  of  the  govern¬ 
ment,  and  the  demands  of  tbe  situation  m  a 
military  sense,  and  they  issued  greenbacks  in  re¬ 
spouse  to  that  demand,  and  not  in  response  to  the 
demand  of  trade,  but  in  violation  of  the  demand 
of  trade.  They  embarrassed  trade.  The  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  United  States  at  that  time  was  in  a 
struggle  for  life.  They  could  not  stop  to  consult 
the  laws  of  trade.  The  question  was  whether  we 
were  to  have  a  government  or  not. 

When  we  issued 

THE  FIRST  VOLUME  OF  GREENBACKS, 

8150.000,000  in  amount,  it  was  on  the  25th  of  Feb¬ 
ruary,  1862.  I  would  be  glad  if  every  gentleman 
who  "was  not  familiar  with  this  fact  would  carry 
it  home  in  his  memory.  I  say  that  $150  000  000  on 
the  25th  of  February',  1862,  were  authorized  to  be 
issued.  On  the  first  day  of  June,  1862,  gold  was  3 
per  cent,  premium,— $150,000,000  was  worth  $147,- 
000,000  in  gold  coin.  Two  years  afterwards  we  had 
$400, 000, (  00  of  greenbacks  out  and  gold  was  worth 
$2  85.  and  the  *400,000,0  0  of  greenbacks  were 
worth  $145,000,000  in  coin.  Jn  two  years  we  had 
nearly  trebled  the  amount  of  greenbacks,  and 
their  value  was  $2,000,000  L  ss  in  gold  coin,  or 
nearlv  one-third.  [Applause  ]  After  this  our 
$100,000,000  limit  was  put  on.  If  we  had  kept  on 
doing  so  we  would  have  got  down  to  the  old  Con¬ 
tinental  idea,  when  it  took  $4,500  to  ferry  one 
across  the  stream  and  $5,000  to  get  his  breakfast 
on  the  other  side. 

A  PRACTICAL  ILLUSTRATION. 

I  have  here  in  my  hands  now  five  kinds  ot 
money,  or  rather  two  kinds  of  money  and  three 
kinds'of  currency.  Now,  there  is  money.  This  is 
actual  money  [holding  up  a  coin].  This  money 
would  stand  alone.  It  don’t  ask  any  help  from 
you.  That  mon  y  is  the  money  which  the  Toledo 
platform,  the  confession  of  faith  on  which  the 
Greenbackers  rest,  on  which  I  believe  my  friend 
Stevenson,  of  whom  I  have  the  kindest  memories, 
is  running  for  Congress  in  this  district,  says  shall 
not  be  accepted  in  this  country  as  legal  tender. 
Thay  sav  there  shall  be  one  uniform  paper  money 
—legal  tender,  and  only  that.  They  exclude  the 
idea  of  either  of  these  kinds  of  money  being 
issued,  and  yet  if  you  would  take  one  of  the  dele¬ 
gates  that  went  to  the  Toledo  convention  just  on 
his  return  from  that  declaration,  and  get  him 
behind  the  door,  and  offer  him  $1,000  that 
you  owed  him,  in  greenbacks  in  this  hand 
or  gold  in  that,  he  would  grab  the  gold 
so  quick  it  would  make  your  hair  stand 
on  end.  They  say  this  shall  not  be  money.  How 
long  has  that  been  money,  will  any  gentlemen  tell 
me  here  ? — how  long  has  that  been  money  !  Ever 
since  the  Government— always— it  will  be  forever 
more.  There  has  never  been  a  time  when  both 
have  not  been  money.  Take  gold  and  take  your 
Bible-and  the  Bible  is  a  good  book  ,  it  is  one  of 
the  best  of  books  on  finance  that  I  know  of,  and 
if  you  don’t  read  it  for  the  sake  of  religion,  read 
it  for  the  sake  of  finances.  Turn  back  to  the  book 
of  Genesis  and  you  will  find  that  Moses,  in  the 
flr-.t  chapter  of  Genesis,  seemed  to  be  in  a  little 
hurry,  and  didn’t  refer  to  gold,  but  he  got  it  in  the 
second  chapter.  He  dec:ared  in  the  second  chap¬ 
ter  of  Genesis  that  the  gold  of  the  land  of  Haviiah 
was  g  od. 

I  AGREE  WITH  MOSES. 

And  the  gold  of  the  land  of  Haviiah  was  not  one 
particle  better,  but  just  the  same  as  the  gold  of 


the  land  of  California.  That  money  has  been  good 
ever  since.  Why,  the  Greenbackers,  gentleman, 
will  tell  you  that  its  value  is  derived  from  the 
stamp  ;  that  just  as  you  make  paper  inro  money  so 
you  make  gold  and  both  derive  its  value  from  the 
Government  stamp,  and  they  are  industriously 
inculcating  that  idea. 

DonotleVus  deviate  m  the  discussion  of  this 
question,  and  confuse  the  currency  with  the 
money.  When  John  Randolph  had  a  quarrel 
with  the  United  States,  he  went  to  the  treasury 
with  his  currency,  and  the  cashier  said:  “What 
will  you  have  it  in  ?”  “Money,”  he  said.  The 
cashier  did  not  exactly  understand  him,  and 
said  :  “What  do  you  want  it  in,  Mr.  Randolph  ?” 
“I  want  money,”  Then  the  gentleman  began  to 
get  through  his  wool  that  he  wanted  coin  ;  that  is 
the  only  money  recognized  by  the  United  States. 
You  may  take  a  $20  gold  coin  to  a  blacksmith 
shop,  ana  hammer  it  until  it  is  large  enough  to 
cover  the  whole  shop,  until  every  vestige  of  the 
stamp  is  obliterated,  and  still  that  will  be  worth 
$20. 

Let  me  read  a  little  history  ;  let  me  tell  you 

A  GREAT  HISTORICAL  INSTANCE. 

When  British  India  was  invaded  by  Lord  Clyde 
in  1768  at  the  battle  of  Placey,  the  treasuries  of 
that  great  Pagan  government  were  thrown  open 
to  the  British,  and  probably  one  of  ;the  largest 
piles  of  coin  money  that  was  ever  exposed  to  hu¬ 
man  view  was  captured  there.  In  that  pile  of 
money  there  were  coins  of  the  ancient  Empire  ; 
there  were  coins  of  Macedonia  under  Philip ; 
there  were  coins  that  bore  the  stamp  of  Alexan¬ 
der  the  Great;  there  were  coins  of  the  mediaeval 
Republics  of  Italy  ;  there  were  coins  of  Venice  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  They  were  lying  thereby 
ithe  millions  and  tens  of  millions ;  they  were  taken 
^p  and  sent  to  England ;  they  were  put  in  the 
Yoffers  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  every 
one  of  those  coins  of  gold  and  silver  bore  the 
stamp  of  Empires  that  were  dead  before  Christ 
came  on  earth,— bearing  the  imprint  of  the  gov¬ 
ernment  that  was  not  <  nly  dead  but  forgotten, 
bearing  the  inscriptions  that  had  required  schol¬ 
ars  to  decipher  and  explain  them,  and  yet  every 
one  of  those  coins,  gold  and  silver,  had  an  abso¬ 
lute  and  determineu  value  that  day  in  London,  as 
well  as  the  British  sovereign  which  the  hour  be¬ 
fore  had  dropped  from  the  Royal  Mint.  I  would 
like  some  modern  Greenbacker  to  have  ap¬ 
peared  in  London  that  day  with  the  Macedonian 
paper  money  of  Alexander  the  Great.  [Great 
laughter.] 

Away  down  in  our  country,  where  I  came  from, 
we  irade  in  lumber  a  great  deal.  I  happened  to 
be  speaking  to  commercial  gentleman  in  Maine, 
and  I  asked  some  Greenbackers  whether  they 
would  like  to  send  lumber  out  to  Buenos  Ayres 
and  sell  it  for  greenbacks. 

GREENBACKS  ARE  PLENTY  OUT  IN  BUENOS 

AYRES. 

They  have  greenbacks  there,  and  they  are  only 
worth  2#  per  cent  on  the  dollar.  Buenos  Ayres 
gold,  and  Bolivian  gold,  and  Venezuelan  gold, 
and  ti  e  gold  of  the  Patagonian  Government  of 
South  America  is  as  absolutely  good  as  the  gold  of 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 

The  old  fashioned  greenback  I  hold  in  my  hand 
has  on  its  face  a  specific  and  absolute  promise  to 
pay;  it  says  “the  United  States  will  pay  the 
hearer  twenty  dollars.”  We  had  tried  the  notes 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  we  found,  owing 
to  the  exigencies  of  the  campaign  and  the  doubts 
and  uncertainties  of  the  war,  we  might  not  be 
able  to  keep  that  promise,  and  when  we  came'to 
issue  the  greenback  we  didn’t  say  we  would  pay 
on  demand.  We  said  the  United  States 
will  pay,  and  that  meant  that  the  United  States 
would  select  its  own  time,— when  it  was  suffl- 


(5) 


ciently  out  of  trouble,  and  dangers,  and  tribula¬ 
tions  ot  the  war— and  we  did  get  out  of  it,  and  we 
got  out  of  it  by  the  virtue  of  the  greenbacks. 
The  war  closed,  and  one  year,  and  two  years, 
and  thiee  years,  and  four  years  went  by,  and  five 
years,  and  six  years,  and  seven  years,  and  eight 
years,  and  nine  years,  and  ten  years,  and  when 
we  got  to  the  tenth  year  we  said  these  ought  to  be 
settled,  and  we  'said  the  tenth  year  after 
the  war,  four  years  hence,  on  the  1st 
day  of  January,  1879,  we  will  pay  these 
greenbacks  in  coin  to  whoever  wants 
it,  next  New  Year’s  Day.  and  the  United  States  is 
going  to  keep  that  promise.  [Applause.]  And 
then  all  of  you  of  every  community,  you  can  get 
your  greenbacks  redeemed  ;  you  can  get  your  coin 
for  greenbacks  whenever  you  want  it.  But  a  thing 
you  can  get  for  the  asking* you  don't  want.  If  you 
couldn’t  get  it,  you  would  be  very  uneasy  about  it. 
That  is  always  the  case.  Ti  e  moment  it  is  cer¬ 
tain,  you  don’t  want  it,  the  moment  it  is  doubtful, 
vou  do.  And  it  is  just  as  inevitable  that  the 
United  States  will  be  able  to  sustain  herself  in 

THE  MATTER  OE  REDEMPTION  NEXT  JANUARY. 

The  Greenback  party  do  not  propose,  as  I  said, 
to  go  beyond  the  greenback  m  the  new  issue — 
that  is  equivalent  to  this,  or  reads  like  it,  but  that 
is  all  the  same  story.  They  do  not  propose  to 
issue  greenbacks  that  the  United  States  will 
promise  to  pay. 

When  the  Government  promised  to  pay  *20. 
they  promised  to  pay  exactly  *20  like  that,  a 
denned  and  well  undertook  thing,  as  much  as  if 
you  had  agreed  to  pay  a  man  ten  bushels  of 
wheat  or  two  barrels  of  pork,  and  of  course  when 
a  man  talks  about  making  this  *20  by  saying  “this 
is  *20,”  he  is  talking  in  the  language  of  id¬ 
iocy,  lunacy,  or  childhood.  You  cannot  argue 
with  him  ;  he  is  not  within  the  domain  of  argu¬ 
ment.  Argument  implies  certain  well-defined 
terms, — certain  terms,— certain  conclusions  that 
are  drawn  according  to  certain  rules  of  legitimate 
argument,  but  this  terip  tramples  on  the  whole  of 
them,  and  any  man  who  really  says  that  he  be¬ 
lieves  it  is  too’ far  gone  out  of  his  right  mind  to  be 
admitted  to  any  place  in  the  world  outside  of  our 
insane  asylums.  If  by  saying  “This  is  *20”  would 
make  it  *20,  there  wou’d  be  no  longer 
any  use  of  stopping  the  money-making  here. 
What  is  the  use  of  making  it  *20  when  you 
could  make  it  *50  just  as  well,  or  a  hundred? 
Why  waste  both  sides  of  it?  You  might  make 
this  side  *1,  and  on  this  *100  ;  or  put  *1,000  on 
this  side  of  it  and  *100  on  this.  If  you  want  to 
pay  a  man  $1,000  put  out  the  thousand  dollar  side  ; 
if  you  want  to  pay  him  *100  turn  this  side  up.  If 
you  want  to  pay  him  *1,100  let  him  take  both 
sides.  You 

MUST  MEET  NONSENSE  WITH  NONSENSE. 

You  cannot  argue  in  the  domain  of  good,  strong 
common  sense.  The  Greenbackers,  I  know,  are 
in  the  habit  of  deluding  themselves  and  trying  to 
delude  others  with  the  belief  that  the  United 
States  cannot  resume.  Th#t  there  is  only  two 
hundred  and  five  millions  ot  coin  and  three  hun¬ 
dred  and  forty- six  millions  of  greenbacks,  and 
how  are  you  going  to  redeem  three  hundred  and 
forty-six  millions  of  greenbacks  with  two  hun- 
dred  and  five  millions  of  coin?  They  go  on  the 
presumption  that  on  the  first  of  January 
morning  every  gentleman  that  has  a  greenback  will 
be  at  the  treasury  door  of  Washington  asking  for 
its  redemption.  Well,  they  won’t  be  there,  more 
than  half  of  them.  There  was-— down  in  the  city 
of  Portland- a  hard-money  Democrat  arguing 
with  a  soft-money  Democrat,  at  d  he  brought  up 
this  same  difficulty,  and  the  old  hard- money 
Democrat  said  to  him,  “You  are  an  old  fool,” 

putting  a  d - before  fool.  He  said  to  this  man. 

“There  are  40,000  people  in  the  city  of  Portland,” 


and  he  answered,  “Yes.”  “Well,  death  is  liable 
to  fall  upon  all  some  time  or  other,  and  each  one 
will  want  a  coffin.  Do  you  keep  40,000  coffins  on 
hand  stored  away  ?”  [Laughter.] 

Well,  there  is  another  kind  of  paper  the  Uni¬ 
ted  States  does  not  issue,  but  becomes  responsible 
for  it. 

A  NATIONAL  BANK  NOTE. 

\ousay  you  would  just  as  lief  have  National 
banknotes  as  greenbacks.  Why  National  bank 
notes  are  not  legal  tender  at  all.  You  say  it  is 
just  as  good  as  greenbacks,  because  the  United 
States  has  written  in  front  of  that  word,  “This 
note  is  secured  by  a  deposit  of  the  bonds  of  the 
United  States  in  the  Treasury  at  Washington,” 
and  if  the  bank  that  issues  it  does  not  pay  it,  the 
United  States  will  step  forward  to  do  that  little 
job  for  themselves  ;  that  is  the  whole  of  it,  and 
any  five  gentlemen,  as  I  said  before,  that  choose 
to  "establish  a  bank,  are  at  perfect  and  absolute 
liberty  to  do  it.  Senator  Thurman  said  that  this 
was  a  “  monopoly.”  Wh  it  schoolboy  told  him 
so?  I  have  always  supposed  a  monopoly  was 
where  o  e  man  enjoyed  a  thing  to  the  exclusion  of 
others,  or  where  one  class  enjoy  anything  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  rest  of  the  community.  Does 
that  apply  to  the  National  Banks?  Are  National 
Banks  in  the  hands  of  any  particular  men  ? 

The  United  States  invite  you  to  establish  as 
many  National  Banks  as  you  please  with  just  this 
one  condition,  that  you  shall  not  go  to  banking  un¬ 
less  you  deposit  10  per  cent  more  of  the  bonds  than 
the  amount  of  notes  you  intend  to  issue.  “But,” 
says  my  Greenback  friend,  “you  get  double  in¬ 
terest.”  Well,  is  that  all?  Only  double?  The  old 
State  banks  used  to  get  four  and  five  times  that  out 
of  nothing  ;  now  you  say  the  National  Banks  get 
double  out  of  something.  That  is  a  fast  increase 
for  good.  But  one  story  is  always  good  until  the 
•|>ther  is  told,  and  this  amount  of  double  interest 
on  the  part  of  National  Banks  is  a  very  good  story 
until  the  other  ssde  is  heard.  The  accusation  is 
that  those  who  establish  the  National  Banks  put 
bonds  in  the  treasury  and  get  interest  on  those 
bonds,  and  then  thev  get  the  interest 
that  comes  from  loaning  this  money  out 
to  the  community,  and  the  Greenback  demand  is, 
— if  I  state  it  incorrectly  I  will  ask  any  gentleman 
in  the  audience  to  correct  me,— the  Greenback 
demand  is  that  the  *320.00  >,000  of  National  Bauk 
notes  shall  be  retired,  and  that  greenbacks  shall 
be  issued  instead  of  it ;  and  that  with  these  green  - 
backs  a  certain  amount  of  bonds  of  the  United 
States  shall  be  taken  up  and  canceled,  and  thus 
the  interest  ceases,  and  that  goes  for  the 
benefit  of  the  public.  Now,  I  propose  to  show 
that  that  policy,  if  were  practicable,  would 
be  a  net  loss  to  the  people  of  this  country.  I  meet 
the  Greenbacker  right  there,  and  I  propose  to 
show  him  that  his  policy,  if  it  were  practicable, 
would  be  an  absolute  net  loss  to  the  people  of  this 
country.  Now,  the  bankers  and  N  tional  Banks 
pay  larger  taxes  than  any  other  cliss  of  property 
in  the  United  States.  Twant  t  v  repeat  that  there 
is  no  class  of  property  in  this  country  that  pays  so 
large  a  tax  as  the  National  banks.  They  have 
320,000,000,  or,  to  be  precise  and  correct,  322,- 
000, r00.  They  last  year  paid  *9,200,000  to 
the  States  and  counties  where  they  were  located, 
and  they  paid  *7,300,000  to  the  National  Govern¬ 
ment  ;  that  makes  *16,300,000  which  the  Na¬ 
tional  Banks  paid  in  Taxes. 

NOW  STICK  A  PIN  THERE. 

Six  een  and  and  one -half  millions.  Now  we 
will  suppose  you  break  them  down,  call  in  the 
circulation,  and  issued  322,000.000  Of  greenbacks, 
and  take  up  that  amount  of  Government  bonds, 
and  the  only  kind  of  bonds  you  can  buy 
at  par,  and  f  will  admit,  for  the  sake 
of  the  argument,  those  you  could  buy, 
would  be  the  4  per  cents.  All  the  rest  you 


would  have  to  pay  a  premium  for  ;  bo  the  best  you 
could  do  would  be  to  destroy  that  amount  of  4  per 
cents.  Well,  supposing  this  was  done.  What  is 
the  interest  on  $322,0  o.oro  United  States  4  per 
cents  ?  It  is  $  12, 880 ,000,  and  you  would  have 
stopped  that  amount  of  interest-  You  would  have 
stopped,  then,  that  amount  of  interest  on  the 
bonds,  and  you  are  getting  #16,500,000  of  taxes 
from  the  National  Banks.  Can  you  figure  out 
where  the  great  gain  is  there  ?  It  seems  to  me  the 
people  of  the  United  States  would  be  the 

losers  of  more  than  $3,500,000  by  that 

plan,  if  it  were  to  be  carried 

out.  But  it  could  never  be  carried  out. 

The  monopoly  of  attempting  to  issue  this  double 
elastic,  interconvertible,  double  backward  som¬ 
ersault  greenbacks,  do  you  suppose  any  man  is 
going  to  give  up  his  bonds  for  them — promises  to 
pay  nothing,  at  no  time,  to  no  one?  They  would 
realize,  in  a  very  large  degree,  St.  Paul’s  defini¬ 
tion  of  faith,  “the  substance  of  things  hoped  for, 
the  evidence  of  things  not  seen.”  Yet  if  you 
go  to  carry  this  out, -if  you  go  to  carry  out  the 
whole  scheme,— it  would  result  in  a  dead  loss  to 

the  people  of  this  country,  as  I  have  said,  in  the 
sum  of  between  $3,000,000  and  $4,000,000. 

I  remember  an  old  gentleman  in  my  State  used 
to  deal  heavily  in  timber  land,  and  if  he  had  two 
men  dickering  for  eitheir  piece  ana  ottered  a  price 
for  it.  He  would  offer  one  price  for  “wild  cat,’’ 
that  is  Michigan  money,  another  price  he  would 
otter  him  in  “Red  Dog,”  that  is  Ohio  currency  ; 
the  third  otter  ;  if  he  would  take  it  in  counterfiets 
on  good  banks  East.  When  gentlemen  talk  of 
destroying  the  National  banks,  they  had  better 
consider  what  it.  was  the  National  banks  took  the 
place  of.  Thn  old  State  bank  of  Illinois  wttl  not 
soon  be  forgotten.  I  passed  a  National  bill  in 
Frankfort-on  the  Main,  just  as  readily  as  I  could 
in  Chicago.  They  are  good  the  world  over. 

SILVER  CERTIFICATES.  j 

This  is  a  silver  dollar.  A  man  is  not  very  rich- 
if  ho  has  got  as  many  as  he  can  carry,  and  yet  to 
favor  and  give  it  all  the  chances  which  it  possibly 
could  have,  the  United  States  says  that  any  man 
who  has  as  many  as  $10.  may  deposit  them  in  the 
Sub-Treasury  of  the  United  States  anywhe-e 
and  get  a  certificate  for  them.  I  have  got  one  of 
them  here  [holding  it  up].  The  front  of  it  reads 
as  follows:  “This  certifies  that  there  has  been 
deposited  with  the  United  Staies  Assistant  Treas¬ 
urer  at  New  York  city  ten  silver  dollars,  return¬ 
able  on  demand  to  the  bearer  of  the 
certificate.”  There  are  three  kinds  of  paper  that 
are  coining  into  use.  I  hold  them  in  my  hand — 
greenbacks,  National  Bank  notes,  and  silver  cer¬ 
tificates  If  anything  is  owing  you,  which  would 
you  prefer  to  'be  paid  in?  Do  you  have  anv 
choice?  Is  there  no  difference  in  any  of  it?  All 
of  you  say  no.  Yet  all  of  these  are  not  legal  ten¬ 
der  ;  and  yet  you  would  just  as  lief  have  them  as 
those  which  are  legal  tender,  and  you,  my 
Greenback  friends,  sleeep  on  that  to-night, 
that  there  fu:e  three  kinds  of  paper  cur¬ 
rency  in  this  country  .to-dav,  and  two  of 
them  are  not  legal  tender.  Just  one  is  legal 
tender— two  are  not  legal  tender.  But  they  have 

f-ot  value  behind  them.  That  is  what  makes  them 
egal  tender.  It  is  not  the  “substance  of  things 
hoped  for.”  It  is  the  “evidence  of  things  seen.” 
Now,  the  1st  day  of  January  next  wnen  you  come 
to  the  day  of  redemption  in  greenbacks,  you  may 
strike  the  legal  tender  principle  out  of  it,  and  you 
will  not  need  it.  If  you  can  get  the  amount  of 
your  pieces  of  money  on  demand,  it  don’t  make 
any  difference  to  you  whether  it  is  legal  tender  or 


not. 


THE  LEGAL  TENDER 

in  paper  is  the  force  part,— the  part  which  is  put 
in  to  make  it  good,  or  money  that  you  have  got 
that  is  absolutely  redeemable  on  demand.  It  does 


not  make  a  particle  of  difference  to  you  whether 
it  has  got  legal  tender  in  it  or  not,  but  you  prove 
that  by  saying,  in  my  presence,  that  you  would  as 
lief  have  the  debts  paid  in  the  two  pieces  thkt  are 
not  legal  tender  as  in  the  one  that  is,— just  ex¬ 
actly,— and  I  want  the  American  people  to  get 
that  idea  in  their  heads,  and  there  will  not  be  an 
inch  of  ground  from  the  lakes  north,  from  the 
gulf  south,  from  ocean  to  ocean,  for  a 
Greenbacker  to  stand  on.  What  we  want 
in  paper  is  “value.” 

The  United  States  is  borrowing  money  at  4  per 
cent.  Mark  that,  Greenback  friends.  We  are  the 
only  nation  on  this  globe 

THAT  CAN  BORROW  MONEY 

at  4  per  cent.,  Great  Britain  alone  excepted,  and 
we  are  not  paying  auy  more  tnau  4  per  cent.  My 
uneasy  friend  oyer  there,  say  he 
buys  and  takes  the  4  per  cents  and  puts 
his  money  in  them.  Now  we  have  mv  other  friend 
here,  who  has  been  industrious  for  a  good  many 
years,  and  saved  up  $10,000,  and  he  looks  arouud 
for  a  good  investment,  and  yon  find  you  are  only 
going  to  get  $400  a  year  out  of  it.  It  don’t  look 
very  big.  You  say  it  looks  like  a  small 
interest  out  in  the  country,  but  our  conserva¬ 
tive  friend  agrees  to  stand  it.  But  right  next  to 
him  sits  a  n.an  with  $10,000,  that  proposes  to  go  in 
and  buy  notes  and  shave  paper.  He  can  get  10 
per  cent,  on  that.  He  can  get  $1,000  a  year  on 
his  $10,000,  and  he  can  take  his  chances  against 
the  bonds  onlv  getting  $400  a  year.  Now  this 
man  takes  the  $10,000  and  goes  into  the  business 
of  shaving  notes,  and  right  in  Chicago  he 
gets  $1,000  out  of  it.  Does  he  pay  $600  of  that 
for  taxes  here  ?  He  ought.  He  ought  to  pay  this 
$600  before  he  is  on  the  same  level  with  my  con¬ 
servative  frieud.  I  don’t  know  much 
about  your  community,  individually,  but 
down  here  on  the  beautiful  prairie,  where  sin 
has  not  entered,  and  guilt  is  not  kn<'wn,  that  tne 
moment  a  man  had  a  thousand  dollars,  he  goes  to 
the  assessor  and  says,  put  this  in.  [Great  ap¬ 
plause.]  On  the  contrary,  would  not  the  man 
who  made  the  $1,000  out  of  $10,000  pay  for  his 
taxes  $75  or  $100  or  $150,  and  then  he  would  have 
$850  or  $900  still  of  income  out  of  that.  But  the 
Government  bond  man  says,  why,  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  has  taken  the  tax  out  of  his 
bond  in  advance.  The  Government  takes  the 
taxes  out  oi  these  by  reason  of  its  litttle  rate  oi 
interest.  And  which  of  these  two  men  paid  the 
taxes,  tne  man  who  agreed  to  take  $400  on  his 
$10,000,  or  the  man  who  takes  his  chances  ot 
making  $800,  or  $1,000,  or  $1,200  possibly,  and 
pay  out  of  that  $75  or  $100  taxes  ?  Take  a 
uniform  and  public  security,  fake  the  Chicago 
City  7s— take  the  railroad  bonds,  and  take  any 
form  of  security  that  are  6  or  7  per  cent.  Let 
him  invest  his  money  in  United  states  bonds 
and  let  him  buy  the  7  per  cent  bonds  of  the 
city  of  Chicago— a  good  security— a  well-known 
strong  security — he  will  get  $700  interest ;  and  he 
ought  to  go  up  to  you.  Assessor  and  pay  $300  of 
that  over  to  place  himself  on  the  same  basis  be¬ 
fore  he  can  say  to  the  government  bond  men 
“You  are  not  paying  any  taxes.”  The  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  United  states  has  not  permitted 
bonds  to  be  taxed.  Suppose  you  could  by  proc- 
lamation  to-morrow  say  that  the  ten  millions  ot 
bonds  of  the  United  States  shall  he  taxed,  of 
course  the  very  moment  you  get  tnat  the  govern¬ 
ment  ceases  to  get  money  at  4  per  cent.  It  would 
have  to  pay  6  right  off ;  that  would  be  the  result. 
At  one  jump  you 

WOULD  INCREASE  YOUR  INTEREST 

50  per  cent,  over  what  you  have  to  pay  now.  You 
can  get  money  at  4  per  cent.,  then  you  would  pay 
6.  Very  well.  Do  you  think  you  would  get  the 
bonds  taxed  ?  Is  it  your  opinion  that,  were  any 


(7) 


one  to  proclaim  to-morrOw  that  the  bonds  should 
be  taxed,  you  would  get  them  taxed?  Do  you 
think  there  would  be  a  long  procession  all  over 
the  United  States  of  the  people  who  hold 
them  coming  up  with  their  little  tin 
trunks  under  their  arms  that  contain  them 
to  the  assessors  and  proclaim,  “We  have 
got  ’em  ?”  You  know  how  those  bonds  are 
kept.  As  I  said  in  a  letter  tin  trunks  with  patent 
locks— thev  are  the  easiest  things  in  the  world  to 
keep  out  of  the  way  of  the  tax-gathers.  Put  them 
in  your  wile’s  bureau  drawer,  they  are  hers,  or 
some  a  son  left  when  he  went  out  to  Colorado  to 
mine,  or  they  belong  to  your  brother  out  in  Cali¬ 
fornia  stock-raising,  or  some  property  of  your 
brother  wbo  is  dead,  and  they  belong  to  his  widow 
who  is  in  Europe  educating  her  family — there  is  an 
infinite  number  of  dodges ;  you  wouldn’t  get 
them ;  the  only  certain  result  you  would  get 
woulo  be  an  increased  interest  on  the  bonds  of 
the  United  States.  Why,  only  yesterday,  appar¬ 
ently, — thirteen  years  ago  this  month,— the  in¬ 
terest  on  the  bonds  of  the  United  States  was 
$144,700,000  a  year,  until  this  very  year  in  which 
we  now  are  that  interest  has  been  reduced  to 
$97,000,000.  There  is  only  $48,000,000  taken  off. 

If  those  uneasy  greenback  gentlemen  will  keep 
themselves  quiet  in  the  rear,  and  not  disturb  the 
credit  of  this  Union,  every  bond  of  the  United 
States, 

INSIDE  OF  THE  NEXT  FIVE  YEARS, 

will  be  changed  into  a  4  per  cent,  and  $30,000,000 
more  will  be  taken  oft'  our  in  erest — and  then  we 
cut  our  interest  down  to  a  little  over  $60,000,000, 
with  a  constantly  increasing  population,  and  a 
constantly  enlarging  wealth,  and  constantly  di¬ 
minishing  debt,  and  the  burden  on  one  man  can  be 
easily  borne  by  two,  and  is  not  felt  by  ten.  If  w« 
in  the  country  but  allow  ours-lves  to  follow  th>\ 
common  path  of  common  sense  and  common  honf 
esty— and  common  sense  and  common  honestv  al¬ 
ways  go  together— always— if  we  do  that,  the  finan¬ 
ces  of  this  country  aie  in  the  strongest  possible 
oondtion  it  is  conceivable  to  be,  and  still  it  would 
not  do  to  let  the  bondholders  escape.  You  want 
to  get  a  punch  at  them.  It  is  amusing  to  hear  these 
men  discuss  the  bondholders.  You  would  suppose 
they  were  a  peculiar  sect— set  apart  or  foreor¬ 
dained  from  the  foundation  and  predestined 
to  he  damned, — you  would  su  pose  that  they 
were  a  sect  that  always  remained  just  the  same,— 
that  the  men  who  got  the  bonds  the  day  they  were 
sold  hold  them  to-day, — they  are  all  rich,*— they 
are  upon  the  same  great  mountain  looking  down 
on  the  rest  of  us  in  the  valley,  and  making  mouths 
at  us,  and  we  can’t  stand  it  any  longer  and  we  are 
going  for  them.  That  is  about  the  idea  ;  from 
which  I  undertake  to  say,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  rich 
men  ol  the  country  are 

NOT  BONDHOLDERS  AT  ALL, 

and  especially  that  class  of  rich  men  that  calls 
forth  the  anathema  and  hatred  of  the  Greenback 
party.  The  "Wall  Stieet  fellows  like  Jay  Gould 
don’t  was  re  any  of  their  substance  in  the  riotous 
living  of  bondholders.  Talk  to  them  of 
4  per  cents,  and  they  will  show  you  a  trick  worth 
three  of  that.  They  don’t  have  any  money  of  that 
kind. 

There  is  not  a  man  here  to-day  that  has  got  a 
policy  of  insurance  that  is  not  a  bondholder. 
There  is  not  a  man  in  this  assembly  who  has  got 
his  life  insured  that  is  not  a  bondholder  of  the 
United  States.  Those  who  have  money  in  savings 
banks  are  also  every  one  of  them  interested  in  the 
bonds  of  the  United  States.  Strike  them  all  down. 
They  have  got  no  souls  to  be  saved  or  lives  to  be 
regarded— let’s  go  for  them— squelch  them— de¬ 
stroy  the  bonds ;  let  the  man  who  has  an  insurance 
policy  on  his  life,  or  on  his  house,  or  on  his  ship 
at  sea,  or  on  any  other  form,  be  ruined  if  yon 


can, — and  let  me  tell  yon  while  you  are  ruining 
him,  you  are  not  going  to  get  the  first  lick  at  the 
bloated  capitalist  of  this  country— that  seems  to 
call  forth  the  wrath  and  indignation  of  the  Green¬ 
back  party — not  one.  There  never  was  a  time  in 
this  country  when  a  large  amont  of  iet-alone- 
ativeness  was  more  needed  than  just  now.  There 
never  was  a  time  in  this  country  when  all  the 
people  of  it  were  ready  to  begin  on 

A  STRONG  CAREER  OF  SOLID  AND  ENDURING 
BUSINESS. 

as  to-day.  Yesterday  a  gentleman  of  the  green¬ 
back  persuasion  asked  me  why  it  was  the  facto¬ 
ries  were  all  stopped,  and  why  it  was  the  channels 
of  business  were  still  dull.  My  answer  was  that 
the  only  thing  to-day  that  prevents  this  country 
bounding  forward  in  a  career  of  business  pros¬ 
perity  of  which  we  have  had  no  parallel  in  this 
country,  is  the  impending  danger  of  a  change  of 
the  value  and  volume  of  the  currency.  [Ap¬ 
plause.]  Tnere  is  not  a  woolen  factory 
in  the  East  to-day  that  dare  to  buy 
the  crop  of  next  year’s  wool,  or  engage  to 
buy  at  any  given  price.  There  is  not  a  cotton 
factory  that  dare  to  lay  in  a  supply  beyond  what 
they  need  from  day  to  day.  And  the  business  of 
the  country  to-day,  by  reason  ot  that  contingency, 
is  going  on  in  a  hand-to-mouth  style,  living  from 
day  to  day  on  the  shortest  possible  expenditure 
that  may  possibly  be  made  for  supplies. 

WHAT  WE  NEED  IS  CONFIDENCE. 

These  gentlemen  tell  you  that  all  our  troubles 
came  from  contraction — that  the  Republican  party 
contracted  the  currency.  Tbat  is  a  flight  of  imagt 
nation.  So  far  from  that  being  true,  I  declare  that 
there  never  was  a  time  during  the  War  or  after  the 
War  tuat  there  was  as  much  paper  money  afloat  as 
there  was  the  day  the  panic  struck  you,  on  the  18th 
day  of  September,  1873.  I  repeat  that  there  never 
was  so  much  as  there  was  on  tbat  day.  You  know 
how  the  Greenbackers  would  make  it  to-day. 
They  tell  you  that  the  seven-thirties— one 
series  of  them  were  legal  tenders — and  that 
the  Republican  party  retired  them  into  long 
bonds  and  6  per  cent,  compou  »d  interest  notes|  to 
the  amount  of  $180,000,000.  They  tell  us  a  large 
amount  of  contraction  came  Irom  retiring  these 
two  kinds  of  notes  and  putting  them  into  bonds. 
Well,  do  1  understand  from  that  that  they  would 
have  con-idered  it  a  wise  policy  for  this  govern¬ 
ment  to  keep  paying  7  3-10  per  cent,  interest  on 
two  hundred  millions,  and  on  the  6  per  cent, 
bonds  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  millions,  while 
they  could  borrow  money  for  4  and  4^  per  cent, 
for  the  sake  of  calling  it  currency.  That 
is  sublime  nonsense.  My  dear  friend,  every 
one  of  these  6  per  cent  compound  interest  bonds, 
every  one  of  these  7-30s.  was  exchanged  for  5,  4# , 
and  at  present  4  per  cent  bonds.  They  aie  all 
in  this  country  lo-day.  If  these  gentlemen  are 
anxious  about  the 

CONTRACTION  OF  THE  CURRENCY 


let  me  say  for  their  consolation  that  these  bonds 
are  worth  just  as  much  as  they  were,  and  the 
credit  of  the  United  States  is  so  good  that  to-day 
the  same  bond  will  go  at  4  per  cent  interest  that 
then  went  at  7  3-10,  and  is  worth  just  as  rouoh.  If 
he  fears  that  the  currency  has  been  contracted, 
let  me  point  him  to  the  fact  that  every  one  of  those 
bonds  is,  or  might  have  been,  paid  oif.  All  these 
bonds  are  just  as  valuable  as  they  were,  exaetly. 
The  trouble  now  is  just  the  same  as  it  was  then. 
When  the  7.30s  were  out  the  trouble  was  the  same 
then  as  it  is  now.  When  the  6  per  cent,  bonds 
were  out,  it  was  the  same  then  as  now.  The 
trouble  all  the  time  was  not  In  getting  the  credi¬ 
tor  to  take  them  for  the  debt— the  trouble  was  in 
getting  the  bonds.  That  is  what’s  the  trouble  to¬ 
day.  You  can’t  talk  about  the  contraction  of  the 
currency. 


(#) 


I  would  like  to  ask  any  gentleman  here  what  it 
is  in  the  national  debt  or  in  the  taxes  raised  to  pay 
its  interest  that  dis'resses  him  ?  i  do  not  ask  the 
quest  on  oratorical  ly.  I  ask  it  for  an  answer.  If 
there  is  any  one  in  '.his  vast  throng  that  can  tell 
me  I  would  like  him  to  now.  What  part  of  the 
tax  laws  of  the  United  States  Government,  levied 
and  assessed  to  maintain  the  public  credit,  to  pay 
the  interest  on  the  public  debt,  and  to  gradually 
discharge  its  principal— what  one  of  these  taxes 
oppresses  you  ?  Voice— f“It  is  on  whisky  ana 
tobacco.”] 

It  is  true  we  have  raised  a  large  sum  out  of 

WHISKEY  AND  PATENT  MEDICINES, 

but  do  you  think  it  would  be  a  good  thing  for  the 
credit  of  the  nation  to  sacrifice  its  honor  and  good 
name  in  order  to  have  whisky  cheap?  We  have 
raised  a  good  deal  out  of  tobacco  and  cigars,  but 
do  you  think  it  would  be  best  to  throw  away  our 
National  honor  and  our  good  name,  to  the  world, 
for  the  sake  of  having  a  little  cheaper  patent  med- 
i  cine— cheaper  cigars? 

I  ask  again,  whac  single  tax  on  any  article  that 
goes  into  the  necessities  of  life,  in  your  homes 
and  houses,  and  your  domestic  economy,— what 
single  one  is  there  that  oppresses  you  here  in 
Illinois^  We  have  a  tariff  that  raises  $100, 000,- 
0  >0.  Do  you  wane  it  destroyed?  Is  there  any¬ 
thing  in  that,  if  destroyed  to-dav,  would  help 
your  prosperity?  Illinois  is  the  fifth  manufac- 
ing  State  in  the  Union.  [Applause.]  Is  there 
any  man  in  this  crowd  who,  if  he  could  have  a 
sponge  handed  to  him  with  which  he  might 
wipe  the  debt  out  of  existence,  would  he  dare  to 
do  it? 

Would  any  result  come  to  him,  or  to  his  people, 
or  to  his  State,  that  would  compensate  in  any  de¬ 
gree  for  that,  vast  destruction  of  national  faith 
and  honor?  [Applause.] 

WHAT  WOULD  ILLINOIS  GAIN 

by  paper  money?  It  there  is  any  man  here  who 
thinks  Illinois  would  gain  anything  by  a  large  in¬ 
crease  of  paper  money  I  would  like  to  see  him.  Is 
there  any  man  in  this  vast  throng  that  believes  in 
his  heart  that  a  single  interest  in  Illinois  would  be 
promoted  by  an  increase  in  the  currency  in  this 
country  to  day  ?  I  do  not  see  how  this  could  help 
you.  The  taxes  which  are  laid  on  the  people  of 
Illinois 

DO  NOT  EFFECT  THE  ESSENTIALS  OF  LIFE. 

bread  and  meat.  There  is  not  a  man  here  that 
ever  sold* a  bushel  of  grain  or  barrel  of  meat  in 
this  State  except  on  a  gold  basis.  You  can’t  sell 
it  any  other  way.  You  can’t  make  a  trade  in 
breadstuff's  or  meat  to  morrow  in  Chicago  without 
knowing  beforehand  the  prices  and  stace  of  the 
market  at  Mark  .bane  at  Liverpool.  If  you  have 
got  your  produce  rates  they  are  rated  by  the 
prices  which  are  in  Russia  and  other  nations*  and 
I  undertake  to  say  that  to-day  the  manufactured 
articles  in  the  East  for  which  the  pork  and  flour 
are  exchanged  have  dropped  more  heavily  than 
pork  and  flour  themselves,  and  I  undertake  to  say, 
in  reference  to  cotton  goods  and  woolen  goods, 
that  you  never  saw  a  time  in  Illinois  when  a 
barrel  of  flour  would  buy  as  many  of  them  [Ap¬ 
plause.] 

My  friends,  we  have  got  to-day  so  we  are  on  a 
foundation  of  the  world’6  money,  and  we  are  buy¬ 
ing  to  manufacturers  f<n-  export.  We  can  compete 
with  the  old  world  if  you  will  give  us  the  same 
currency  as  the  old  world. 

WE  ARE  A  SMARTER  PEOPLE 

than  the  rest  of  the  world,— a  greater  people,— we 
are  a  more  energetic,  enterprising  people.  We  are 


to- aay  running  a  race  with  all  the  great  nations  in 
Europe  in  fabrics.  We  are  selling  cutlery  in  Shef¬ 
field,  cotton  goods  in  Manchester,  and  watcher 
made  at  Elgin  Ills.,  in  Geneva.  This  is  to  your 
benefit.  There  is  not  a  single  fabric  made  in  the 
Eastern.  Middle,  or  Western  States,  that  goes  to 
favoringgexporc,  that  don’t  benefit  every  man, 
and  if  we  stand  on  the  money  basis  of  the 
world  we  can  complete  with  the  rest  of 
the  nations  of  the  old  countries,  and  be  a  great 
manufacturing  country.  And  our  wealth  comes 
to  us  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe. 
Keep  on  this  gold  basis,  and  there  will  be  a  con¬ 
tinual  tendency  to  decrease  the  price  of  manu- 
factured  articles  more  rapidly  than  to  decrease 
the  value  or  price  of  agricultural  products.  The 
other  day  I  saw  at  Ottumwa  a  great  pork  pack¬ 
ing  establishment  in  process  of  erection.  A  gen¬ 
tleman  tola  me  it  was  being  put  up  by  an  Eng¬ 
lish  company, — large  enough  to  pack  3,000  hogs 
a  dav , — there  wei  e  to  lay  in  100,000  tons  of  ice 
for  summer  packing,— they  are  to  run  the  year 
through, — they  are  to  pack  the  meat  for  export  for 
the  European  people.  Do  you  suppose  that  the 
English  company  that  is  attracted  by  your  great 
"prosperity  and  great  resources  to  make  invest¬ 
ments,  cares  anything  about  what  you  are  going 
do  about  Greenbacks  ?  They  are  going  to  sell 
their  meat  abroad  for  gold.  It  will  be  turn. shed 
on  a  gold  basis,  no  matter  in  what  kind  of  rags 
you  insist  in  being  paid.  Do  you  think,  when  you 
are  compelled  to  complete  prices  with  the  world — 
do  you  think  when  you  are  compelled,  as  you  are, 
to  sena  goods  all  over  the  world— you  will  be 
able  to  take  the  prices  in  the  world’s  money, 
or  do  you  think  it  is  a  big  thing  to  go  and  say, 
“Let’s  play  we  are  getting  more?”  Illinois  pro¬ 
ducts  to-day  can  be  found  in  every  Kingdom  in 
Europe,  and  let  me  tell  you  you  can  never  traffic 
vith  those  countries  as  well  ae  when  you  are  on 
v  he  same  basis  of  currency  with  them  Never! 
We  stand  to-day  fronting  the  great  Democratic 
party,  ISJorth  and  South.  This  Greenback  party 
is  only  a  flame  of  a  day.  We  hear  a  voice  from 
Iowa  and  Ohio,  but  they  got  us  a  little  foul  down 
in  Maine.  We  are  like  Lyman  Beecher  said  in 
the  temperance  reform,  we  will  stand  back, 
spit  on  our  hands,  go  in  and  win  next  year. 
We  come  to  the  front  on  these  issues.  We  come 
to  fight  the  Democratic  partv,  and  the  Democrats 
that  are  right  on  the  sound  money  must  rest  their 
weary  souls  with  the  Republican  party,  for  the 
Republican  party  is  the  only  National  party  in 
this  country.  I  have  been  discussing  onlv  the 
financial  question.  I  have  said  nothing 
about  any  other  question.  The  Republican  party 
is  to  be  trusted  and  must  be  trusted  in  the  con¬ 
servation  and  preservation  of  all  that  was  fought 
for  and  all  that  was  gained  in  the  war.  I  say  I 
do  not  care  to  dwell  on  that  issue,  hut  there  is  one 
point  on  which  I  never  will,  and  never 
shall,  and  do  not  propose  to  keep 
quiet,  and  that  is  there  are  in  the  Southern  States 
to-day  thirty  five  representatives  in  Congress, 
and  thirty- two  votes  in  the  Electoral  College,  but 
the  colored  population  of  those  States  have  not 
any  choice  in  the  selection  of  their  representa¬ 
tives.  I  want  them  as  free  to  choose  as  the  peo¬ 
ple  of  Illinois,  and  to  exercise  the  same  free¬ 
dom  in  the  choice  of  their  representa¬ 
tion,  and  have  the  same  rights  as  the  white  man. 
They  have  been  denied  these  righ's,-but  we  will 
never  stand  that.  We  shall  maintain  the  rights 
which  we  earned  them.  By  these  great  dends  we 
shall  stand  or  fall,  Mr.  Chairman,  on  this  is-ue  be¬ 
fore  the  American  people,  there  is  no  such  word 
as  fail, and  victory  is  already  upon  us  and  is  at  this 
moment  in  our  grasp. 


